The Trial of
Dan White: Trial Testimony of Diane FeinsteinSource: The Trial of Dan White by Kenneth
W. Salter (1991)

DIRECT
EXAMINATION by Mr. Norman:

Q Mayor
Feinstein, on or about the 27th of November, last year, you were the
President
of the Board of Supervisors at that time, weren't you?

A That is
correct.

. . . Q Calling your
attention now to Monday morning, November 27th, of last year, were you
in your
office some time at approximately around 11:00 o'clock?

A Yes.

Q Do you
recall
about what time it was that you arrived at your office that day?

A It had to
have
been, oh, probably around 9:30, because I was-because I received a
phone call
from the Mayor about 9:00 o'clock, perhaps a little before, at my home.

Q Was that
a
phone call that you received from the late Mayor Moscone in connection
with any
appointment that he was likely to make on that day to the Board of
Supervisors?

A Yes, it
was.

Q Being the
President of the Board of Supervisors, that would be discussed with
you, no
doubt, wouldn't it have been?

A Well, not
necessarily "no doubt,” but I had written a letter in support of Dan
White's reappointment.

The Mayor had
indicated to me he would let me know when he had made up his mind as to
what he
was going to do, and he called that morning and indicated that he had
decided
not to reappoint Dan White, and told me that he was going to appoint
Dan
Horanzey, and that he was going to be sworn in at 11:30 that morning.

Q Now, Mayor
Feinstein, George Moscone, who was the actually elected Mayor of San
Francisco
at that time, and who had taken office in January of 1976, had the
power, did
he not, to appoint persons to the Board of Supervisors, where vacancies
existed?

A
Absolutely-absolutely. . . .

Q Mayor
Feinstein, now bringing us up to a little later, in the morning, did
you have
occasion to see Mr. Dan White at some time on November 27th, 1978?

A Yes, I
did.

Q Will you
tell
the members of this jury where you were and where Mr. White was, and
just
indicate what observations you made.

A I was
sitting
in my office.I had met with the clerk
of the Board and Deputy City Attorney, Jim Lazarus, at approximately
10:00 o'clock,
because I was aware of the fact that both Dan White and Dan Horanzey
would be
taking their seat on the Board.

We had been
working on the parliamentary procedure to prevent a problem from taking
place,
because Dan Horanzey was to be sworn at 11:30, and I asked at that time
if it
would be acceptable if I were to try to find Dan White and talk with
him,
because I felt I could talk him out of taking his seat.

So, I had asked
my staff to locate Dan White so that I might talk with him, and I was
sitting
in my office with my door open.My
staff, namely, Peter Nardoza, had told me that Mr. White had gone to
the
Mayor's office to make a last ditch appeal, and then would come and see
me
directly thereafter.

So, I was
waiting for him to come in the door, and I was sitting at my desk, and
I heard
the door open, and I saw him enter, and I said, "Dan," and he said
something to the effect, "Just a moment," or, "I have something
to do first" and went by very rapidly.

I heard Peter
saying, "Dianne wants to see you."

And I heard him
go down the hall, and I heard the door close. It
was a very short period of time. . . .

Q . Please
continue.

A. And I heard
the door close, and I heard the unmistakable shots.

Directly after
the first one, I thought he didn't-knew he wasn't going to be
reappointed and
he shot himself, and I-then I heard additional shots, and I knew that
something
was wrong, and I heard several shots.

I couldn't-I
couldn't be precise about the number, because there was a pause in
between
them, and I knew I had to move, and I was trying to force my brain and
my body
to function together and move out of the chair, and I had gotten out of
the
chair and was approaching the door of my office when I saw Dan leave,
and I
said, "Dan,” and he went right by, and the door closed.

I then smelled
the gun powder, went down the hall, saw that the door to Harvey Milk's
office
was closed.

I opened the
door, and I saw his body, and I tried to get a pulse, but I could not,
because
of the blood, and I felt that he was dead, and so I closed the door and
secured
the area, and called the Chief of Police immediately.

The Chief was,
apparently, on the phone hearing about the episode on the other side of
the
hall, about which I was unaware at the time.

I asked him to
come down very immediately, and he did, and when he arrived, he told me
that
the Mayor had been shot and killed as well.

Q Mayor
Feinstein, you stated that after you had heard the series of shots you
went
down the hall, you investigated in Harvey Milk's office-was it in
Harvey Milk's
office?

A No, it was in
Dan White's office, I'm sorry.

Q Mayor
Feinstein, had you ever carried a concealed firearm?

A Yes.

Q When was that
that you carried a concealed firearm, and pursuant to what?

A I had had
several threats from the New World Liberation Front terrorist
organization that
had taken credit for several bombings throughout the United States and
the Bay
Area.

A bomb had
detonated at my house which had approximately two pounds of water gel
construction explosive in it, and because of a fluke in that the
weather had
dropped below the explosion point, the explosion-and the explosive had
splattered over the house, and fortunately did not explode.

It was a very
large bomb, and would have blown off the front portion of my house,
which had
scaffolding for a paint job on it, and would have sent that scaffolding
as
shrapnel into the homes of the neighbors.

I also had 15
bulletholes put in a beach house that my husband and I owned, and the
threats
were continuing, and with that in mind, I applied for a concealed
weapon
permit.

It was
granted.

I was trained in
the use of firearms at the Police range, and for a period of time,
while the
threats continued, I did carry that weapon.I
would like to point out that I also carried it during
the period of
time I was visiting my husband in the hospital, in March, shortly
before he
died, and for the further reason that on many occasions, late at night,
I
walked home from the hospital.

I did not carry
it after that, and I have not since.

Q You carried it
up until what time?

A Approximately
March '78.

I renewed the
permit in March '78, but I did not carry it, only on very few occasions
after
that.

Q You had a
permit issued you legally by the Chief of Police of San Francisco to
carry a
concealed firearm by a person, didn't you?

A That is
correct.

MR. NORMAN:
Thank you very much, your Honor.

CROSS-EXAMINATION

by Mr. Schmidt:Q Do you
know whether any other members of the Board of Supervisors past or
present
carried or kept firearms at City Hall?

A I'm only
aware
of one.

Q Who was
that?

A The
former
Chief of Police, Supervisor Al Neider.

Q Mayor
Feinstein, you were out of the country from October 15th to November
15th,
1978; had Dan White, during his tenure on the board of Supervisors,
consulted
with you on occasion?

A Yes.

Q He
was-would
it be fair to say he was politically inexperienced at the time he took
the seat
on the Board of. . .

A I felt
that
Dan was new to the process, and that the Board, which had been a
citywide
elected board, was now a district board, and I was President of that
Board, and
I wanted to help each member as much as I could.Dan White and I
had lunch from time to time, discussed various problems and issues, and
I tried
to provide as much help as I could.

Q Did you feel,
generally, that he was somewhat idealistic?

A Yes, I felt that
Dan had very strong ideals. He had always worked very hard,
and he took the process very seriously, and we talked about it from
time to
time.

Also, we
had
light moments, and shared humor, as one does.

I worked full
time at it, and so I was there most of the time, not all the time, but
I had an
opportunity to talk with the supervisors as they came and went, and
shared
experiences of the day, and the normal colloquy that exists between
people that
work together. . . .

Q You
mentioned
that he was-took the process very seriously, and that was, I assume,
the
legislative process, of the job on the Board of Supervisors, and can
you
amplify on that perhaps?

A There
were
issues about which Dan White felt very strongly. One had to do with the
location of a facility in his district which had caused a great deal of
division within the district.

He fought very
hard for his position. I felt that over a period of time that Dan
would, as he
became more knowledgeable about the process, would become a good
legislator.

Q Initially,
would it be fair to say that it was a bit of a frustrating experience
as to Dan
White, and as to perhaps for anyone being new to that type of job?

A That is
correct.

The Board
is a
frustrating experience to everyone.

Q Generally,
after you had returned to the City in November of'78, how did you first
learn
that Dan White had resigned; do you recall?

A I read it in
the newspaper, and I was ill that week.

My first day
back was the Monday when this happened. I had not been back to City
Hall that
week, and I read about it in the newspaper, and I called Dan to find
out what
had happened. . . .

He said he had
been under a great deal of pressure, great deal of economic pressure;
that he
had become very concerned about the new business, that there were
problems;
that some of his partners didn't feel that he was putting in the time
he should
in the business; that he and his wife were working very long hours.

He pointed out
to me explicitly that he worked from Saturday morning, 9:00 a.m., to
1:00 a.m.
Sunday morning, and spent Sunday doing the books; that he had had to
rearrange
the mortgaging on the house to be able to handle the business; that he
was
under a great deal of stress; that he had not consulted anybody when he
resigned, and then his family came to his aid and he felt that the
economic
stress to which he had been subjected was being remedied, and that he
had asked
for the reappointment.

He also pointed
out that the baby had spent a lot of time at a baby sitter, and that
was of
concern to him. . . .

A That, in
essence, was the summary of the conversation. And I indicated that I
would
write a letter to the Mayor in support of his reappointment, and I
would do
whatever I could to try to secure the reappointment.

Q You, in fact,
did write that letter to the Mayor, did you not?

A That is
correct.

Q Do you
remember the response from the Mayor's office, the initial response? .
. .

A That the
initial response of the Mayor was in favor toward reappointment.

Q Do you recall
hearing or reading, or within your personal knowledge, that the actual
letter
of resignation was returned to DanWhite?

A Yes, I'm aware
of that.

I checked
that
out, as President of the Board, to see whether the letter of
resignation was,
in fact, actually received.

A copy of it, I
was informed, was actually received, was checked in by the clerk.

The technicality
of the resignation, the legality of the resignation, as I understood,
was
complete. The resignation had taken place.

Q Now, returning
to November 27th, 1978, when you saw Dan White, could you describe for
me his
appearance, and I know you only saw him briefly, but describe the best
you can
recall.

A Yes, he came
in the office very rapidly.

His jaw was
clenched, and he, as sometimes happens, his hair had fallen slightly
over his
forehead, and he was pale, and otherwise, there was nothing' unusual
that I
perceived, other than he was moving rapidly.

Q Other than
that, he was clenched and white-faced or pale?

A That's right.

Q You mentioned,
Mayor Feinstein, that upon hearing the shot, your initial reaction was
that Dan
White had killed himself; is that your testimony?.

A Yes, that was
my initial reaction, because I knew that if he had been to the Mayor's
office
he knew that he didn't have the appointment, and that was the only
thing I
could think.

The next thing I
thought is that there were too many shots for that to have happened.

Q Did he indicate
to you at any time what he had told Dan White in regards to
the reappointment issue?

A No, that issue
did not come up. . . .That was one of the reasons. I was trying to
reach him. I
thought I would soften the blow, and that it would be helpful if I
could talk
with him.

Q And your
staff, in fact, had been sent, and they returned, saying they thought
he was
making a last appeal to George Moscone for the appointment?

A That's
correct.

Q Given that you
knew Dan White quite well, would it be your opinion that the man you
know was
the type of man that would have shot two people?

A No,
it would not be my opinion.

Q
In Fact, do you recall talking to
some inspectors shortly after the tragedies?

A Yes.

Q Do you recall
mentioning that you just couldn't understand it, and thought it was as
to the
Vietnam experience or latent stress?

A Yes... .

REDIRECT
EXAMINATION

by Mr. Norman:

Q You had
indicated also in your testimony earlier that you wanted to see Mr.
White
because knowing that Mr. Dan Horanzey was going to be appointed and be
sworn
in, and take his seat as supervisor of District 8, that there might be
some
problem with Dan White going to take that seat, possibly?

A A letter had
been received by, I believe it was the Clerk of the Board, indicating
that Mr.
White intended to take his seat on Monday. .

.I
was also aware that Mr. White was planning a legal challenge, because I
had
been called on the phone toward the end of the week by one of his
attorneys,
Peter Bagatelos, who indicated to me this was the case, and I told him
that I
did not feel, if he was asking for the conclusions of a lay person,
that this
legal battle had any merit to it, because I had checked out the fact
that the
resignation had been actually clocked in by the Clerk of the Board, and
therefore was legally effective, and that the only chance that remained
was for
Dan to be reappointed by the Mayor.